EHRNet Research briefing No. 1 September 2013 1 Abstract This research briefing considers why the environmental health profession needs to become more research active and evidence based. We first explore what we mean by ‘environmental health’ and ‘evidence based environment health’ before explaining why a stronger research culture is desirable. We finish by introducing a vision of what evidence based environmental health could look like. What is environmental health? Environmental health (EH) is a relatively new term (MacArthur and Bonnefoy, 1997) without a simple definition (CEH, 1997; Smith et al., 1999). Some years ago the Environmental Health Policy Committee of the United States Department of Health and Human Services identified more than 28 different definitions of environmental health, but in turn failed to adopt one because they believed that they had functioned well and were, therefore, reluctant to add another to the list (EHPC, 1998). Until a better definition comes along we adopt the two part definition developed gradually by a series of environmental health conferences held under the World Health Organisation umbrella: “Environmental health comprises those aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by physical, chemical, biological, social and psychosocial factors in the environment. It also refers to the theory and practice of assessing, correcting, controlling and preventing those factors in the environment that can potentially affect adversely the health of present and future generations” (WHO Europe, 1994: page unknown) This definition is chosen because the first part acknowledges the breadth, complexity and inter-related nature of environment-health relationships, whilst the second part recognises the role of interventions that includes the role of EH professionals. In the UK this professional public health role gradually emerged during the 19 th century (see Crook, 2007), but despite these historical origins observers of the UK environmental health profession have long described a disconnection between EH and broader public health agendas for reasons including political and organizational factors (Burke et al., 2002; McCarthy, 1996) and the attitudes of EH professionals themselves (Gray, 2004). We recognise that some EH professionals remain confused about their public health roles, but we consider EH as one part of a much broader public health. Rayner and Lang’s (2012) recent grand public health vision also recognises EH (the sanitary-environmental model) as one of five models of public health and provides a much needed critique of its strengths and weaknesses towards the ecological public health they advocate. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing all EH students, practitioners, policy makers and academics is grappling with its cross-disciplinarity, a generic term we use to describe any kind of mixing (e.g. inter-, intra-, multi- disciplinary) of academic disciplines. Returning to the definition of EH above, relations between the environment and health and their management have been shaped by many disciplines over the centuries. For example two studies (Crook, 2007; Hutter, 1988) exploring the work of EH professionals describe decision making shaped by factors and disciplines (in brackets) including: • Individual beliefs (sociology, philosophy) • Professional factors (law, politics, sociology) • Scientific empiricism (natural and medical sciences) • Organisational priorities (law, politics, economics) • Relations with colleagues and superiors (sociology, psychology) • Relations with potential EH offenders (law, sociology, psychology, politics) This list is not exhaustive but it illustrates why, in our opinion, environmental health is best conceptualised as a subject comprised of many, frequently overlapping, disciplines. Research to better define the disciplinarity of environmental health is another priority, but environmental health practice is by its nature cross-disciplinary because decision making requires EH professionals to engage with so many different disciplines every day. This is important for the following reasons: • Environmental health is more complex than EH professionals and others often appreciate, recognising and managing this is critical; UK Environmental Health Research Network Research briefing 1 An introduction to evidence based environmental health Caroline Barratt 1 , Rob Couch 2 , Alan Page 2 , Surindar Dhesi 3 , Jill Stewart 4 Co-founders of EHRNet and affiliated to: 1 University of Essex; 2 Middlesex University; 3 University of Manchester; 4 University of Greenwich Correspondence to Caroline Barratt: barrattc@essex.ac.uk EHR Net Promoting research and publication in environmental health